Oil and gas industry working to block improvements

Your Dec. 7 front-page story, “‘Green Completion’ Addresses Fears about Fracking,” states that drilling companies are now going to be required to employ processes that will reduce methane emissions into the atmosphere. I have three brief comments about this.

It would have been helpful, had you attempted to solicit comments from independent scientists about the accuracy and significance of your report. (Two possibilities: Anthony Ingraffea at Cornell University and Ron Bishop at SUNY Oneonta).

Even if your story is accurate, the new techniques you describe amount to putting a Band-Aid on a tumor. They do nothing to deal with the huge quantities of toxins dispersed into the air by the thousands of diesel-powered trucks required for every frack job on every well. Nor do they address the alarming methane leakage rates from the miles and miles of pipelines that are the inevitable accompaniment of gas drilling.

In any event, the pro-fracking lobby is working to block even these minor improvements (as the article points out.) Not that anyone should find that surprising — the oil and gas industry has shown repeatedly that it has absolutely zero concern for the health and well-being of people who are affected by its operations.